An Invitation to Present has been announced for TAPPI's 2012 International Bioenergy and Bioproducts Conference (IBBC), October 14-17, 2012 in Savannah, Georgia.

IBBC will focus on technical advancements and commercialization of bioconversion technologies that leverage the forest products manufacturing infrastructure and will include technical presentations, expert panels, case studies, and reports from projects that address:

Feedstock and harvesting improvements to increase yield and quality of biomass

• Bioelectricity using combined heat and power (CHP)
• Bioconversion technologies for wood and biomass
• Production of chemicals and transportation fuels from wood and biomass
• Policies and incentives for bioconversion projects

Presentations are sought in the following areas:

Advances in Technology: strong technical papers with a focus on presenting new findings

• Biomass Supply & Demand
• Advances in Conversion Pathways
• Biomass Harvesting & Preparation
• Advances in Bioproducts

Commercialization Activities: case studies and updates from pilot scale, commercial, and pre-commercial operations

• Biorefineries
• Repurposing the Traditional Pulp and Paper Mill
• Harvesting and Preparation
• Technical Economic Analyses
• Commercial Collaborations for Enabling Technologies
• Project Deployment Issues

Impacts of Policies and Incentives: analysis of existing or proposed bioconversion policies at State, Provincial or Federal levels

• Public policy proposals
• Pulp/paper incentives that support bioconversion progress
• Assessing common ground between pulp/paper and agricultural bioconversion policies

Limited space is available for poster presentations.

Abstract Submission Information: Authors interesting in presenting a paper should upload their abstract to the TAPPI's Speaker Management System .

Abstract Requirements: Abstracts should be no more than 200 words.

Submission Deadline: March 9, 2012

Presentations Deadline: September 17, 2012

Authors will be notified of acceptance by April 20, 2012.

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Matthew Kanneberg, Division Safety Manager, Containerboard Mills with RockTenn is TAPPI's newest member. He visited TAPPI's headquarters to discuss not only how TAPPI can support RockTenn's efforts but to explore partnering opportunities between the Pulp and Paper Safety Association (PPSA) and TAPPI.

Matthew commented "I've been around the industry all of my life – with a Dad who worked a 43 career in the industry primarily with former Willamette, to my first industry job at 18 at a corrugated medium mill, to now helping develop new cooperative projects between PPSA and TAPPI. I am excited to get more active in and collaborate with TAPPI on key safety initiatives that will truly help our industry!" Welcome to TAPPI Matthew!

To learn more about the Pulp & Paper Safety Association.

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2012 Student Summit Goes Global

The 2012 TAPPI/PIMA Student Summit will be held this year in Jacksonville, Florida; with tours of Rayonier and Rock-Tenn mills at Fernandina Beach. This year's Summit is shaping up to be one of the best yet with approximately 150 students and 25 industry participants. Students are coming to the Summit from as far away as India, France, and Canada as well as our domestic students from the frozen North: Washington, Minnesota, Michigan, and Maine.

There will be over one dozen companies onsite to perform interviews for full time and co-op positions. Sessions will include, "Hey there's paper in my electronics", "the Future of Fiber", and "Dissolving Pulp". Thank you to the following sponsors: Ashland Hercules Water Technologies, BASF, Boise Paper, Buckman, Chemstone, Domtar, First Quality Enterprises, Georgia-Pacific, International Paper, KapStone, Kruger, MWV, Nalco, OMNOVA Solutions Foundation, Orchids Paper, Rayonier, Rock-Tenn, Weyerhaeuser, and the many TAPPI members who support the TAPPI Foundation with their annual gifts.

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"Renewing the Renewable Industry", a December 7 TAPPI webcast production, featured Agenda 2020, the technology alliance driving innovation and renewal in the forest products industry. The event attracted more than 100 registrants from about a dozen countries.

Panelists included Agenda 2020 president and executive director Ron Brown; vice president and technology director John Cowie; MWV senior vice president-technology and forestry Mark Watkins, who serves as chair of agenda 2020; and Beth Cormier, vice president-R&D, SAPPI Fine Papers-N.A and Agenda 2020 vice-chair Kathleen Bennett of Bennett Consulting served as moderator. Participants heard how this public-private consortium of companies, academia, and government offers a cost-effective research collaboration to promote development of new enabling technologies that can lead to new products, new markets, and new processes.

Agenda 2020's mission is to transform the industry by establishing the research priorities, driving collaborative research, and obtaining funding, striving to make the industry more sustainable—socially, environmentally, and economically.

The presentation is now available on TAPPI's website .

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The 2012 TAPPI PEERS Conference, October 14-17 in Savannah, Georgia, has announced the Call for Papers. PEERS is the perfect forum for paper industry professionals both to acquire practical operating insights and to network with industry peers in technical sessions, tutorials, round tables, new technology sessions and workshops.

Topics suggested for the 2012 technical program are as follows:

• Fiber and Pulping
• Mill Operations and Engineering
• Steam and Power
• Recycling
• Environmental Management and Regulation
• Sustainability

Abstracts on other topics are welcome.

Learn more.

Authors interested in presenting a paper should upload their extended abstract to TAPPI's Speaker Management System by March 9, 2012.

Authors will be notified of acceptance by April 20, 2012 and must provide a full text manuscript by July 20, 2012.

For more information please contact Craig McKinney, TAPPI Program Manager at +1.770.209.7294

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Coming to you in the Mail Soon!

The 2012 TAPPI Catalog will be mailed to you with your copy of the January/February issue of Paper360. The catalog will be available for viewing online shortly.

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The MICA Corporation and the Siegel Family have endowed the Daniel Siegel Scholarship Fund. The fund will assist deserving youth in pursuit of a career in the field of packaging. This gift will be a testament to Daniel Siegel's interest in TAPPI and higher education for all.

The Daniel Siegel Scholarship Fund comes at a crucial time in American Manufacturing. "A chronic shortage of engineering students threatens America's role as the world's leading innovator and continues to impede our nation's fragile economic recovery," wrote Paul Otellini, a member of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, in a recent opinion piece for The Washington Post. This shortage of engineers is even more acute in the manufacturing sector and threatens America's ability to retain its innovation edge.

This fund will help to encourage promising students to continue their studies and become the next great innovators for the packaging industry. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the staff here at TAPPI and all the young people who will benefit from your generosity; we thank you for this important gift.

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Learn the Critical Leadership & Management Skills To Take Your Job to that Next Level

Foundations of Leadership Excellence is a course focused on the fundamentals of leadership & management skills for emerging leaders, high-potentials, and area operating managers and other technical professionals. This course will be held March 28-31, 2012 at the University of Memphis campus, in Memphis, Tennessee, and is being co-produced by TAPPI and the University of Memphis.

This course is the ONLY leadership & management course available that is focused on the Pulp & Paper industry.

• The course instructors have approximately 100 years of combined experience in leadership, management and human resource roles within the pulp & paper industry.
• Course curriculum covers industry specific, real-world scenarios.

Participants will develop personal leadership skills through the use of influence. They will learn to impact organizations from a 360 degree perspective and how to address the challenges of team building, accountability, performance management and other critical factors of organizational success.

View the course website to learn more.

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Gulf Coast TAPPI February 2012 Meeting

• Dates: Technical Sessions 2/23/12; Mill Tour 2/24/12
• Location: Technical Sessions - South Birmingham, AL area (possibly Marriott on Grandview Parkway, just off 459 & 280)
• Mill Tour: Resolute Forest Products - Coosa Pines, AL
• Subjects: Lime Kiln & Recausticizing Operations & Maintenance

The program's primary focus will be on recent projects in these areas to improve efficiency, productivity & up-time.

Planned Presentations

• Lime Kiln Dust Collection System Retrofit at Coosa Pines - Mill staff will present and discuss recently completed dust collector project which directly addressed off gas system build-up problems and reduced downtime required to clean out the system. The plan is to tour the kiln area and view the new system in operation

There will be one or two additional presentations focusing on similar lime kiln dust collection system projects and the benefits gained.

• Kiln Maintenance Issues - one to two presentations on general PM for kilns and comparisons regarding hot vs. cold alignment procedures for rotary kilns.
• There will be several presentations focused on similar type projects/subjects in the recausticizing area.

For questions about this program, please contact: Glenn Hanson at (404) 432-4498 or Glenn.Hanson@metso.com

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